Animal Rights in the Middle East

Interesting article on the challenges faced by animal rights activists in the Middle East. Even though they are often met with condescension, the fact that they are out there means a lot. Hell, I'm met with condescension in my own country and my own home. And I'm in a "progressive" environment.

Latest News on Best Friends' Haiti Efforts

I hope one day to leave a bunch of money to help animals in such horrible conditions. Of course, I have to figure out how to earn that money first :-).

In the meantime, direct from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary...

Uganda Benefits from Mountain Gorilla Survival

Uganda is seeing a growth in tourism dollars from visits to see its mountain gorillas. This is very important. The tourism revenue creates an incentive for Uganda to protect the endangered species at the same time that it contributes to human welfare.

This is a kind of symbiotic relationship that only benefits both members of the relationship. Lets hope it continues to flourish. There are only about 700 mountain gorillas left in the world.

Working Animals Face "Firing Squad" in Developing Countries

Ugh. Horrible story. Fortunately the donkey was rescued by the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad (SPANA).

Here's what they say about "the Firing Squad," a horrible method of "treating" wounded work animals.

We don’t really mean that they will be lined up and shot. No, their suffering will be far more drawn out. They will be ‘fired’ with a red hot iron in the mistaken belief that it will cure a wound.

Humar, pictured on the right, is just one animal to have suffered this traditional, yet ineffective treatment, to horrifying effect.

For many years, Humar had carried heavy loads for his owner and was now suffering from arthritis. Although there are medicines that would have eased his pain and reduced the inflammation, Humar was forced to struggle on. He needed time to rest and recover. Unfortunately, this is far from the treatment he got.

Like many poor people in Morocco, Humar’s owner had little chance of being able to afford a vet – or even find one close by. So he turned to a ‘traditional cure’. This involved repeatedly laying a hot iron onto Humar’s shoulder. His suffering didn’t stop there. Predictably, the ‘cure’ failed and he then later poured boiling hot engine oil all over Humar’s coat.

African Journalist Addresses Animal Welfare

This is a moving and insightful article about animal welfare in the developing world. The author is Jack Meena, a journalist based in Tanzania.

In the article, Meena also discusses the growing threat of agrobusiness in developing countries. This concerns me deeply. As reform of factory farms progress in developed countries, these practices will simply be transplanted and "outsourced" to developing countries desperate for the economic growth. Traditional animal husbandry will be supplanted by the crueler industrialization of meat production.

Asia, South America and Africa are now becoming major growth areas for the development of factory farming. This growth is often supported and encouraged by western agri-business interests.

Livestock production worldwide continues to grow and is tending to move from extensive marginal land use and mixed cropping to industrial or factory farming. Nowhere is this expansion more marked than in developing countries.

According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa will be the world’s leading producers of animal products by 2020 and much of that meat will be produced in industrial systems (Delgado, 1999).

Photo by endaf.